The premature death of superb American mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson has been followed by that of her friend and mentor at Boston's Emmanuel Church, Craig Smith. As Hunt's celebrity grew, she kept returning to work at Emmanuel, where she started out as a violist, then joined the choir. In this selection of passages from Bach cantatas and arias from Handel's Hercules, recorded at the church, admirers can trace her growth from low lyric soprano to lush mezzo of perfect technique, intonation and clarity. Anthony Holden

Though born in Vienna in 1730, Christian Joseph Lidarti left for Italy, the country of his ancestors, at the age of 21, never to return. He settled in Pisa where he composed in a style which bridges the baroque and classical periods - a curious mix of Vivaldi and Haydn. The easy charm of his three violin concertos disguises the fierce demands they make upon the soloist, but Francesco D'Orazio tackles them with fluent ease, nimbly accompanied by Auser Musici, an ensemble dedicated to the preservation of neglected Tuscan treasures. Stephen Pritchard

The Russian composer's unrequited love for a married woman merges with the Italian conductor's apprenticeship under St Petersburg's Valey Gergev to bring Russian angst to Rachmaninov's under-rated first symphony. A failure at its first performance in 1897 (partly because the conductor, Glazunov, was drunk), it is only now winning a foothold. This outstanding performance is well complemented by Rachmaninov's unfinished 'Youth' Symphony, written when he was only 17, and the 'Isle of the Dead', a dark musical response to the gloomy painting of Arnold Bocklin. AH